Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Thursday December 10, 2009 @12:35PM
from the we-are-the-robots dept.

An anonymous reader writes "European researchers have developed a new approach to artificial intelligence that could allow computers to respond to behavior as well as commands, reacting intelligently to the subtle nuances of human communication. It's no trivial feat – many humans struggle with the challenge on a day-to-day basis."

Absolutely. I went to a private school and am familiar with the privileges of an Old Boys' network. Yes, competence is a must, but what makes you an insider is a particular way you must act: a social protocol that is on its surface, the mark of someone well-spoken, polite and reasonable, but underneath is a way to make sure that the undesirables are snubbed. Body language, accent, jargon, dress, mannerisms: all these things are involved.

It is all the more useful that people believe such things as body language are innate and immutable. It means we can pretend you're equal while we're more equal than you; it means that, if you're especially unobservant, we can act in a way that you interpret as naturally suave, sophisticated and respectable, when in fact we're just carefully controlling what you think is uncontrollable.

In short, the elite get a lesson in marketing, whatever their field. The middle classes think they're too smart to need that lesson, then wonder why then seem to reach a ceiling.